German stocks - Factors to watch on August 28

BERLIN/FRANKFURT, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The DAX top-30 index looked set to open 0.3 percent lower on Monday, according to premarket data from brokerage Lang & Schwarz at 0606 GMT.

The following are some of the factors that may move German stocks:

ECB

The European Central Bank’s ultra-easy monetary policy is working and the euro zone’s economic recovery has taken hold even if more time is needed to lift inflation to the bank’s 2 percent target, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday.

AUTOS

BMW indicated 0.2 percent lower

Daimler indicated unchanged

Volkswagen indicated 0.1 percent lower

The supervisory board of Audi is expected to meet to replace four of the premium carmaker’s top executives.

Separately, a federal judge in Detroit sentenced former engineer James Liang to 40 months in prison on Friday for his role in Volkswagen’s multiyear scheme to sell diesel cars that generated more pollution than U.S. clean air rules allowed.

And Handelsblatt daily cited company sources as saying Daimler was working on plans to convert the company into a holding that owns legally independent operating entities to allow it to respond more effectively to industry changes.

BASF, BAYER

BASF indicated 0.5 percent lower

Bayer indicated 2.3 percent higher

Bayer and Johnson & Johnson’s blockbuster clot prevention drug Xarelto was shown to cut the risk of potentially deadly strokes and heart attacks in patients with severe atherosclerosis by 24 percent, raising the prospects of billions more in sales.

Also, an Arkansas task force has advised the U.S. state to bar sprayings of dicamba herbicides after April next year, which has been linked to crop damage across the U.S. farm belt. Monsanto, which Bayer is buying, is relying on dicamba resistant seeds for future growth while BASF is the world’s largest dicamba producer.

REINSURERS

Munich Re indicated 0.6 percent lower

Hannover Re indicated 0.1 percent lower

Catastrophic flooding triggered by Tropical Storm Harvey inundated Houston on Sunday, forcing residents of the fourth most populous U.S. city to flee in boats or hunker down in anticipation of several more days of “unprecedented” rainfall.

AIR BERLIN

Indicated 0.3 percent lower

The company’s Air Berlin Finance unit said Friday it had filed for suspension of payments.

Also, former F1 driver Niki Lauda is interested in buying back Air Berlin’s Niki, the Austrian airline he once owned, joining a slew of companies and investors vying to grab parts of the German carrier.